H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 3, 2018 10:07 PM UTC:
When programming is involved one can never be completely sure. But it is what the EGT generator says, and that same generator gives exactly the right statistics for the conventional pieces (where other EGT exist to compare against). The number of positions at each DTM then is exactly the same.
What I am sure of is that the argument you give is not relevant. What is relevant is whether the bare King can outrun the 'posse' that tries to drive it in the direction where it doesn't want to go, and run circles around it. If the mobility of the exclusion zone created by the attacking pieces is larger than the speed of a King, the latter is effectively trapped on one side of it. The point is that the board has edges. So it is enough if your posse can keep up with the King when it stays running in the same direction. Because eventually it will be blocked by an edge, and will have to reverse. Which takes some extra moves before you have to start keeping up with it, which can be used to make progress. E.g. King + Bishop + something vs King: King + Bishop can confine a King in a triangle at a corner, because the attacking King can plug the hole where the bare King could slip through the Bishop diagonal. But is just moves fast enough to keep doing that. But when the bare King has to reverse because it hits the edge, it now needs two moves before it threatens to escape, so you have one spare move to approach your third piece. Eventually it will then join the posse, and force the bare King to step back rather than just reversing, at an edge. This will work on a board of any size.
But when the speed of the posse is lower than that of the bare King, you can no longer confine the latter when the number of moves it needs to gain the width of the posse is smaller than what the posse needs to cross the entire board.
P.S. The entry form throws away long stretches of text again. Luckily I has moved this one to the clipboard before pressing 'Preview'....
When programming is involved one can never be completely sure. But it is what the EGT generator says, and that same generator gives exactly the right statistics for the conventional pieces (where other EGT exist to compare against). The number of positions at each DTM then is exactly the same.
What I am sure of is that the argument you give is not relevant. What is relevant is whether the bare King can outrun the 'posse' that tries to drive it in the direction where it doesn't want to go, and run circles around it. If the mobility of the exclusion zone created by the attacking pieces is larger than the speed of a King, the latter is effectively trapped on one side of it. The point is that the board has edges. So it is enough if your posse can keep up with the King when it stays running in the same direction. Because eventually it will be blocked by an edge, and will have to reverse. Which takes some extra moves before you have to start keeping up with it, which can be used to make progress. E.g. King + Bishop + something vs King: King + Bishop can confine a King in a triangle at a corner, because the attacking King can plug the hole where the bare King could slip through the Bishop diagonal. But is just moves fast enough to keep doing that. But when the bare King has to reverse because it hits the edge, it now needs two moves before it threatens to escape, so you have one spare move to approach your third piece. Eventually it will then join the posse, and force the bare King to step back rather than just reversing, at an edge. This will work on a board of any size.
But when the speed of the posse is lower than that of the bare King, you can no longer confine the latter when the number of moves it needs to gain the width of the posse is smaller than what the posse needs to cross the entire board.
P.S. The entry form throws away long stretches of text again. Luckily I has moved this one to the clipboard before pressing 'Preview'....